February is moving month for teams with an eye on the NCAA tournament.

Some squads have all but locked up a berth in the tournament and spend the next four weeks fighting for seeding. Others still need to make their case for an invitation.

Count Texas Tech among the latter.

This is a critical week for the Lady Raiders, who are in a three-way tie for sixth place in the Big 12 Conference with a 4-6 record. Tech’s next two opponents — Oklahoma State and Iowa State — are the two teams it’s tied with.

“It’s obviously a great opportunity to separate yourself,” said Tech coach Kristy Curry, who expects the top seven teams in the conference to get at-large NCAA invites.

The Lady Raiders will face the Cowgirls at 7 p.m. today at Gallagher-Iba Arena.

The two teams have had remarkably similar seasons, dominating their non-conference opponents before struggling in Big 12 play.

Oklahoma State will be looking to end a three-game losing streak, and Tech will be looking to start a winning streak after beating Missouri on Saturday. Before the win, the Lady Raiders had lost six of seven games.

“It’s the first week of February,” Curry said. “That’s where resumes are made and I think our kids understand that.”

Oklahoma State (12-7, 4-6) accounted for one of Tech’s three wins during the first half of Big 12 play. The Cowgirls lost to the Lady Raiders, 58-53, in the league opener on Jan. 4.

Quite a bit has changed since that Tech win, which was its 13th straight.

Kierra Mallard had one of her best performances of the season against the Cowgirls, racking up 19 points, 11 rebounds, five blocks and four steals.

She’s been up and down since and missed back-to-back games with an injury. Mallard has come off the bench in the last two games.

Shauntal Nobles, the starting center in Mallard’s place, has been battling inconsistency. She played a big role in Tech wins against Texas and Missouri, but saw only seven minutes against Texas A&M and had no rebounds.

Curry said today’s starting lineup will be determined in practice, which has seen increased competition between all the post players. Jordan Barncastle has also started in Kelsi Baker’s place the last two games.

“Any coach likes that competition every day,” Curry said. “That’s what has made us better here lately is just continue to compete every day in practice. ... Certainly nothing is guaranteed.”

Nobles called Saturday’s 76-49 victory against Missouri a “total team effort, the best effort we’ve had in a long time.”

“We’re 4-6,” Nobles said. “If we were 6-4 we’d be feeling a lot better. We’re just trying to start a winning streak and get on top of the Big 12.

“We just had some slippage in the games we lost. And it’s all about coming back and working in practice, getting better and taking the next game and playing even better than that.”

The Cowgirls outrebounded then-No. 13 Tech in the first meeting and outscored Tech in the paint and in second-chance points.

Oklahoma State coach Jim Littell said he’s been pleased with his team’s progress this season. One more win would match last season’s conference total of five.

Littell has no seniors on the squad, and his probable starting lineup includes two freshmen and a sophomore.

“We’ve been blown out a couple games but for the most part we’ve been highly competitive,” Littell said. “You look at everyone except for Baylor, there are teams that have gone on two-, three-, four-, five-game skids in this league. How you handle that as a coaching staff and how you handle that as a player will define you.”

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This gonna be a good week! We beat the two teams we are tied with in conference race OSU and ISU and we are in 6th place alone. We gotta have these two wins if we go to NCAA's. Simple as that. We gotta dig down deep and find it and grind it! I predict we do exactly that and then some. Lets get the groove back and show em we mean it this time!!!